


How I Need You

by PixelatedRose



Series: Bleeding Heart [1]
Category: SK8 the Infinity (Anime)
Genre: Episode 9, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Kaoru is very sweet too, Kojiro is just so sweet and worried, M/M, Major Character Injury, Marriage Proposal, kind of...?, teen and up for language and injury description, you'll see - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-16
Updated: 2021-03-16
Packaged: 2021-03-25 01:54:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30081684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PixelatedRose/pseuds/PixelatedRose
Summary: Kojiro takes Kaoru to the hospital and in his attempts to keep himself awake, Kaoru lets slip a few words that make Kojiro's heart leap.
Relationships: Nanjo Kojiro | Joe/Sakurayashiki Kaoru | Cherry Blossom
Series: Bleeding Heart [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2213298
Comments: 6
Kudos: 281





	How I Need You

**Author's Note:**

> First time writin for the fandom! Not the last either I can tell- I have lots of plans!  
> Anyway, enjoy the read, part two is comin out eventually!

Cherry was going up against Adam- just like he had so many years ago as kids- and Joe had run up to him, not being able to find the right words to say ‘be careful’ or ‘I love you’ before Cherry sparked up their banter, helping him save face. He wanted so badly to pull his partner in and give him a kiss- for luck, of course- but instead, all Joe could do was just hope the look in his eyes was enough.

And he was scared the entire race, silently holding his breath and waiting to see if Adam would trap Cherry the same way he had Langa and Reki, waiting to see if he’d trap Cherry the same way Adam had trapped him so many many years ago. But then he didn’t, and they neared the factory, so Joe let out the breath. 

It was going to be alright. He knew Cherry still desperately wanted to believe that Adam was redeemable, that somewhere deep down he still cared. But it was okay, Joe could help him through it, help him like he had been for years. Joe might have wished they’d talked about Adam more, so he could have started helping Cherry heal sooner, but this would have to do. Cherry was going to win.

And then Kojiro had to watch as Adam bashed his board into Kaoru’s face.

He had to watch as Kaoru fell to the ground, barely moving-  _ not _ moving- as road rash infested his body and the new gashes on his face and head began to ooze a color darker than Kaoru’s hair and far less pretty, the tarish-ruby of it ruining the pink locks and pale skin. 

He had to watch as Adam insulted him, told Kaoru he was boring- not worth anything- and turned back to the camera to gush about the  _ teenager _ he was obsessed with. 

And soon, Kojiro’s body was moving, even before he knew what he was really doing. He had suddenly appeared on his bike, now speeding down the track as fast as possible, avoiding bystanders and Adam- against his lesser judgement- along the way. 

When he reached his body, it was battered and bloodied and he was hardly breathing well. Kojiro removed his love’s tattered mask and grappled gently onto his hand. “Hey, hey, hey- Cherry, Cherry, I need you to stay awake for me, princess. Please, you have to stay awake, Cherry, you have to stay awake.” He looked him over and tried to determine the damage done.

He had blood pooling under his head and a gash over top his forehead, disappearing into his hair- something probably left from the wicked horns decorating Adam’s board- and the entire right side of his face was beading up with blood, the roughness of the board face acting like sandpaper against his pale skin. His lip was split and bleeding and so was his nose. His arm looked wrecked and he was sure there was a vast amount of damage he couldn’t see- especially regarding his torso and ribs.

Kojiro made decisions as quickly as he could and ripped a length of cloth off the bottom of Kaoru’s yukata- the fabric being far easier to tear than anything Kojiro had on- and pressed it to the gash in his head. “C’mon...You have to talk to me, Kaoru...You  _ have  _ to stay awake. Kaoru please, I need you to talk to me.” His voice was edging on desperate now and he hated it.

He was so busy trying to tend to Kaoru’s injuries in an attempt to help prolong his consciousness, that he didn’t notice Kaoru’s hand until it tapped weakly against his arm. Kojiro looked up at Kaoru’s face and saw golden eyes slitted open, pain littering the glassiness of them. And his voice scratched out a response to Kojiro, sounding like he had swallowed a mouthful of glass and nails. “...I told you not to call me that in public…” Even the faintest ghost of a smile graced him, and Kojiro decided to focus on that and not the tears dripping down his battered face.

Kojiro smiled. “There you are, Princess! Keep talking to me, okay-”

“Joe!!!” Kojiro whipped his head around to see Shadow and Miya in the florist’s car, both of them sprinting out. “We can take my car, you won’t be able to carry him on your motorcycle.”

Miya was staring wide-eyed at Kaoru and Kojiro felt a flash of resentment toward S for a moment, wishing they put age restrictions on who could enter. “Shadow, Once you help me get Kaoru in the car, take my bike and get Miya home, okay?”

Kaoru sputtered out a few words, still scratchy and weak, like he had sand in his throat. It probably felt like he did... “You’re really letting him use your bike?” Kojiro was grateful that Kaoru was still responding, even unprompted.

He turned his attention back to said pink-haired pretty-boy and carefully, as carefully as he possibly could, slid his now red stained hands under Kaoru’s legs and back. “Now stay with me here, but what would you say if next time a client brings you to Sia La Luce, you actually act like you know me?” He said trying to help Kaoru not think of anything but Kojiro and his dumb voice.

But then he lifted him up and Kaoru let out a muffled shriek as his limbs made their adjustments. The noise splintered Kojiro, the kind of agony that Kaoru was in wasn’t something either of them experienced often, and it was a kind of pain no one should ever have to endure. Kaoru gasped breaths and it was all Kojiro could do to hold him close and whisper into his hair. “I know, I know...It’s okay we’re going to the hospital right now, okay? Hey, princess, what do you think of coming over sometime to try out a new recipe- cherry and mint macaroons.”

And Kojiro prayed Kaoru answer him, the way his head lay limply against his chest dashing many of those hopes, but not quelling them. “Dimwit…”  _ Thank god… _ “Sounds-” He gasped, agony screaming in every one of his features as Kojiro began to move him, gently as possible, but still not gently enough- nothing would be gentle enough with his injuries... “Sounds awful…” Kaoru breathed.

He carried him to the car’s open back door and continued to talk. “Alright alright, I’ll admit, not my best idea,”

“Obvi-” A gasp. “-viously…” Kaoru’s breath stuttered again and Kojiro could tell he was struggling and fighting his hardest. It made him love him more for it.

“So how about instead, when all of this is over, I take you on a good expensive vacation, yeah?” Him and Shadow worked to lay him in the backseat, and Shadow told Kojiro to stay with Kaoru in the back once they were situated. Kojiro nodded, trusting the younger for a moment.

Unfortunately, to get Kaoru into the back, that meant that Shadow had to help lay him out from the other side of the car. He gripped his ankle to help lay his legs flat and Kaoru swallowed another shriek, it coming out as a muffled growl- a cross between a scream and yelp, and contained by his throat and teeth, tears squeezing their way from the corner of his eyes. But once it was over and Kaoru was laid out, head laying in Kojiro’s lap, he still responded. “Koji…” He gasped out. “Once this is over, you’re taking me fucking Scotland…” He said, head resting against Kojiro’s abdomen.

Kojiro spoke a moment with Shadow- apparently he wanted to drive them so Kojiro could focus on Kaoru, and he’d already sent Miya into the hands of some respectable friend of his- and turned back to Kaoru to smile at him and brush his fingers through his bloodied hair. “Oh yeah? Why Scotland?”

The car shuttered as Shadow closed his door and started up the car. “Because,” He breathed, sucking in a breath as the car began to move, jostling Kaoru’s body. “‘s Quiet-” is all he managed to say before he had to focus on his breathing again. It was just a few seconds before he spoke up once more. “Besides...We haven’t been there yet...you call me princess, too…” Kojiro could feel Kaoru losing the battle he was fighting and his breath hitched in throat.

He cupped Kaoru’s face in one of his hands and brushed against his face softly, but enough that he was sure Kaoru could still feel him. “Hey, hey Kaoru- Don’t you fall asleep, Kaoru. Don’t fall asleep.”

Kaoru barely rolled his eyes open, the golden things looking feverish and carved from pain. “I’m so tired, Kojiro...It hurts so much…” The little confession, softer than his other words and drowned in agony, shattered Kojiro.

He brushed his hands into his hair and wiped sweat and sticky red-pink locks from his face. “I know, I know it hurts, I know you’re tired. But you gotta hold on, okay? Hold on just a bit longer. Tell me more about Scotland. What would we do there?”

Kaoru made a noise that could have been mistaken for a chuckle and his uninjured hand gripped onto Kojiro’s wrist as tightly as he could, which was pitifully weak in his current state. “We would drink good alcohol, of course...and listen to the bands…” 

“Mhm? What else would we do, love?” Kojiro kept him awake and still felt knots of uselessness settle into him. He couldn’t do anything to make the pain go away…

Kaoru sucks in a horrible breath as they take a corner. “We...We would go and visit the castles...You’d say I’m ‘in my element’...call me princess again…”

“Yeah? I probably would, princess. What next?”

“And when you’re...when we’re there, I’d finally ask you…” Kaoru is getting delirious now, his words are slurring together and his eyes are flickering and darting about between being fluttering open and slipping closed again. They took another turn and he bit back another yelp. “Please...When are...where’s the hospital…? Soon…?” He seemed so pleading and it broke Kojiro’s heart all over again.

“Yeah, we’re almost there, we’re almost there. Just a little longer, love. What would you ask me at the castles in Scotland?” He ran a hand over Kaoru’s and sighed in relief when he saw them nearing the hospital.

“Dimwit…” Kaoru muttered. “I’d ask you-” He was cut off with a gasp as the car turned sharply into the lot.

“It’s okay, Kaoru,” Kojiro murmured, whispering close to his love as he saw paramedics rush out. “We’re here now, it’s okay…”

“No- Kojiro,” Kaoru turned to him and in the whirlwind of pain dancing in his eyes, Kojiro saw something else. “I’d ask you to marry me…”  _ Love _ .

Kojiro was shell-shocked for a moment, but there was no time to waste as the medics pulled Kaoru out of the car and away from Kojiro.

And for the next hour or more, Kojiro was busy with giving the medics Kaoru’s medical history, explaining the injury- “It was a bad skating accident up in the mountains a bit” Technically not a lie- and worrying over the pink haired man he’d fallen in love with. Kaoru had slipped asleep as soon as he wasn’t needed to be awake anymore- so basically as soon as he was rushed in through the doors. And as he waited patiently beside Kaoru, knowing he’d be asleep far longer than Kojiro would be able to stay, He thought of what Kaoru had said before they’d taken him away.

_ “I’d ask you to marry me…” _

Had he meant it? Or was it just Kaoru’s delirium and blood loss? Would he even remember when he woke up? Did he say it just to make something up so he would have an excuse to stay awake?

_ “I’d ask you to marry me…” _

Was Kaoru really planning to ask Kojiro to marry him…?

Kojiro was shooed out of the hospital soon and, to distract himself from the heavy and yet fluttery light words Kaoru had muttered in his injury, he threw himself into running the restaurant.

Marriage was something Kojiro had been wanting for nearly a year, knowing how he felt about Kaoru better than he’d known anything else. But Kaoru hadn’t been ready when Kojiro had first even mentioned the prospect- laughed him off and said they didn’t need to rush things- if rushing things meant 4 years of dating and nearly a decade of  _ knowing _ each other. But Kojiro was ready to wait another 10 years if it meant him and Kaoru would be happy along the way. 

And Kaoru knew how much Kojiro wanted to get married too, saw how he lit up slightly when people compared them to an old married couple- He knows Kaoru noticed because he’d brought it up once.

So was it really possible Kaoru was planning to propose? Had he been planning on proposing when they traveled to that island together, before being interrupted by the younger boys, having to pretend they came separately? How  _ long _ had he been planning this? Since when did Kaoru want to get  _ married _ ? To  _ Kojiro _ ??

It was later that evening and Kojiro was once again thinking of Kaoru- he always was- but it was one of their dinner nights, after all. He was still cleaning up when he heard the door jingle open behind him. “Sorry, We’re closed!” He called behind him, reaching up to replace a bottle.

“Even for me? Rude.” Kojiro had to stop himself from dropping the bottle.

He turned around to face Kaoru. “Aren’t you supposed to be in the hospital?” He asked, voice soft.

Kaoru scoffed. “It’s just a scratch, I’ll be fine, really Kojiro.” He wheeled up to the counter and Kojiro couldn’t keep himself from handing back another soft retort.

“You look like a fucking mummy, Kaoru.”

“Whatever, class-allergic gorilla.” He picked up an empty bottle of wine Kojiro had yet to take care of and glanced at it with annoyance. “It’s empty, dammit…”

“It’s your turn to bring the drink~!” Kojiro whistled as he took the empty bottle from his boyfriend’s hands.

“I’m injured.” He puffed out matter-of-factly, there seemed to be no fire behind their banter this time, and Kojiro realized Kaoru’s head must still be pounding.

“Fine, lemme go see what I have.” Kojiro lied. He knew he didn’t have much, and even if he did, he wouldn’t let Kaoru have a single drop.

Surprisingly, Kojiro  _ did _ have wine- a bottle of lafite he’d been saving for the next time he and Kaoru had a slightly fancier date night- but as he came back out he saw that Kaoru had fallen asleep with his head in his arms. 

He sighed and poured him and Kaoru a glass anyway. A formality, a sentimentality, whatever else you wanted to call it. “Adam’s skating alone...He has been for a very long time now, huh? But…” He cheered his glass against Kaoru’s softly and he thought of the words that had slipped from his lover barely 24 hours prior. “We’re not alone...” He stared at the pinkette with so much love, and thought his chest would burst.

He was truly the most lovely person Kojiro had ever met. He was beautiful even now, head pressed up against his bar, drooling slightly and glasses pressed and shifted up on his face, bandaged in 21 different ways and unable to walk on his own. Kaoru was stunning.

Kojiro pressed a soft kiss against the corner of his mouth. “Right, Kaoru…?” He spoke as softly as the kiss, not wanting to wake him up. He finished both their glasses and quietly pulled Kaoru into his arms. He whispered a soft, “Carla, power off.” and watched as the electric chair hummed an equally soft, “Yes, master Kojiro. Goodnight.” And the purple lights flickered off.

Carrying Kaoru upstairs to his apartment, Kojiro tucked the pinkette into his side of the bed, and walked around to his own. He quietly found himself stroking at Kaoru’s hair, still matted with dried blood and crunching under his fingers, sending rusty red dust showering onto the sheets. He’d have to wash them in the morning…

It still didn’t matter to Kojiro. He thought Kaoru was most beautiful like this. The way he wasn’t formal, or fancied up, or putting on an act or pretty face- wasn’t bickering, wasn’t painting calligraphy, wasn’t even skating- No...This Kaoru, the one who had blood in his hair, had his glasses off center from his face, drooled on his bar counter, and  _ still loved Kojiro _ \-  _ that _ was Kojiro’s favorite version of Kaoru.

And so Kojiro put away any and all of his anxieties about the pink haired man he’d fallen in love with in highschool and carefully and tenderly intertwined their bodies, threading their hands together with care, and with even more caution, taking care to not upset his injuries.

And easily, Kojiro fell asleep.

When he woke up, He was met with liquid gold eyes.

They smiled at him.

“Good morning, love…”

“To what do I owe the pleasure of such a kind awakening?” Kojiro teased.

Kaoru kicked him lightly under the sheets. “I should have never missed you, you don’t deserve it.”

Kojiro chuckled and tucked a strand of pink hair behind Kaoru’s ear, his hand lingering on his cheek, thumbing the skin there, light as a whisper. “I was worried about you…”

“No need. You know that…”

“It will never stop me from worrying, princess. That’s what happens when you love- you worry.”

“I know…”

“Kaoru?”

“Yes?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Kojiro.”

“And Kaoru?”

“Yes?”

“Did you mean what you said in the car?”

“...That was real, then?”

“Yeah. Did you mean it?”

There was a light and airy pause and Kojiro swears he could sink into the warmth of it and fall back asleep. He had come to terms that he would love whatever answer Kaoru gave him far last night.

Kaoru smiled in a way that only Kaoru could.

“Guess you’ll have to take me to Scotland and find out, huh?”

Kojiro stared at him and shook his head fondly. He pulled Kaoru in close and kissed his hair.

“Guess I will.”

**Author's Note:**

> Whoo!! Been an age and a half since I've written a oneshot! And it's still technically not a oneshot lol. I asked a friend who read it if I should make a part two with them in scotland and so now I'm writing a part two!!  
> Anyway, thank you for reading How I Need You, and if you feel so inclined, tell me about your favorite part!! As always, Stay Fresh and Minty, Folks!!


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